The TEV protease is a highly site-specific cysteine protease

Cysteine protease

Proteases are enzymes that degrade polypeptides. Cysteine proteases have a common catalytic mechanism that involves a nucleophilic cysteine thiol in a catalytic dyad. The first step is deprotonation of a thiol in the enzyme's active site by an adjacent amino acid with a basic side chain, usually a...

 that is found in the Tobacco Etch Virus

Tobacco etch virus

Tobacco etch virus is a plant pathogenic virus in the genus Potyvirus and the virus family Potyviridae. Like other members of the Potyvirus genus, TEV is a monopartite strand of positive-sense, single-stranded RNA surrounded by a capsid made for a single viral encoded protein. The virus is a...

 (TEV). The optimum recognition site for this enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

is the sequence Glu-Asn-Leu-Tyr-Phe-Gln-(Gly/Ser) (ENLYFQ(G/S)) and cleavage occurs between the Gln and Gly/Ser residues. Some of the advantages of this enzyme are its high specificity and its high activity rate. One of the main uses of this protein is for removing affinity tags from purified proteins. This peptidase belongs to the C4 peptidase family.

The molecular weight of this enzyme varies between 25 and 27 kDa depending on the specific construct used.

External links

TEV Protease Homepage

National Cancer Institute TEV FAQ

Invitrogen's TEV Protease Product Page